| |
Work Small Group Notes
Work: do you work to live or live to work?
‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life
by what we give' Churchill
As you Start
You may like to play a piece of music, something to still everyone?
You may like to try opening with a few moments silence?
If neither appeals, what about asking a fun ‘ice-breaker’ type question?
Individual Exercise
-
Opening Question
-
What experience do you have of working?
(Paid or voluntarily)
- What is your response to ‘working to live or living to work’?
-
When you are ready and if you feel able, share with one other person in the group what your thoughts and experience are.
Group Work
-
Read: 1 Corinthians 9 v. 3-14
-
-
Remembering how toil and labour are described in Genesis, as entering human life. Is Activity (work) a good or
bad thing?
-
From the issues in this passage, how do you define ‘work’
-
How does this passage fit with social concerns of unemployment and disability? What are the financial implications?
-
How does ‘Christian work’ differ from any other kind?
-
Considering our own lives, where has the balance between work and rest been? Have you got the balance right?
-
Do you feel the church supports you enough in your working life? How could it improve in this area?
-
Which is the dominant driving force for you in your current behaviour - Survival, Success or Significance ?
-
Reflecting on your work and life in the last five years, what would say are the key choices you made?
-
Which of these were good choices and which were mistakes? Why
- Where do I find it hardest to remember that I am serving Christ in what I do?
Prayer
You may like to close by using one of these prayer ways
Spend some time in opening prayer, praying for those in work, both within the group, but also others you know. Include in this time, prayer for those who have been made redundant and for those who are unable to find work, whether through disability or situation
Print out the following prayer and say the bold bits together, you leading the rest
Managers, commuters, workers stuck behind computers
Lay your burdens down, come to me and rest
Laborers on the soil, all who dig and sweat and toil
Lay your burdens down, come to me and rest
Overstretched and overstressed, underpaid, abused, oppressed
Lay your burdens down, come to me and rest
Unemployed or long-term ill, those with too much time to fill
Lay your burdens down, come to me and rest
In the home, on the road, those with dangerous overload
Lay your burdens down, come to me and rest
Those who never get a break, those who give while others take
Lay your burdens down, come to me and rest
Loving God, refresh us
Healing God, restore us
Mighty God, remake us
Gracious God, renew us
Amen
|
Sharon Seal, 18/05/2009
|
|
| |
|